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Underwater French Wine Cellar
Underwater French Wine Cellar? Yes, Virginia, there IS such an animal. But before I let the cat out of the bag – or , more appropriately – the fish out of the acquarium – why would any steeped-in-tradition-this-is-the-only-way-to-do-it French Wino want an undersea wine cellar?
The short answer is : because it has been demonstrated to improve the wine. Not, however in all cases. But this fact, amplified somewhat by the knowledge that the Romans allegedly added salt to their vintages, was enough to get one of France’s more prestigous Winos curious. Curious enough to try experimenting with an Underwater French Wine Cellar. (authors note : DA BG is not curious enough to try this.)
Laurent Banguet has the details:
“I had heard a bunch of stories about wines ageing at sea,” Bruno Lemoine, who runs the cellars of Chateau Larrivet Haut-Brion in the southwest Bordeaux region, explained as he unveiled their findings this week in Paris.
One of the earliest known sea vintages dates from the 18th century, when the Bordeaux baron Louis-Gaspard d’Estournel sent a shipment of wine to India, whose unsold bottles returned to France mysteriously improved by the journey in the hull.
The most recent – and extreme – case dates from Friday, when 11 bottles of the world’s oldest champagne, salvaged in 2010 from a Baltic Sea shipwreck, were auctioned off in Finland for 109,280 euros ($136,000).
The six bottles of Juglar, four of Veuve Clicquot and one of Heidsieck & Co, were preserved or even improved in the 200 years since the wreck, experts believe, thanks to the ideal conditions found on the chilled, lightless bed of the Baltic.
“I found the whole idea amusing and intriguing,” Lemoine said. “So when in 2009 we found ourselves with an exceptional vintage, full of rich tannins, I decided to put it to good use.”
“It started out as a lark among friends. One of us came up with the idea and the others ran with it.”
First Lemoine asked his barrel-maker chum Pierre-Guillaume Chiberry to build him two small 56-litre wooden barrels in which to age his red wine by an extra six months.
One was to be kept in the chateau cellars, the other sunk underwater among the prized oyster beds of the Bay of Arcachon, north of Bordeaux on the Atlantic coast.
Chiberry set his three top craftsmen to work on the barrels, assembling them simultaneously by hand to ensure they were strictly identical for the purpose of the experiment.
When done – inspired by the challenge – they cycled 150 kilometres to Lemoine’s vineyard in June 2011 with the barrels in tow to see them poured full of the 2009 vintage, already aged nearly two years by this point.
The barrel kept at the chateau was dubbed “Tellus”, after the Roman goddess of the land, and the other “Neptune” after the sea god.
“Neptune” was picked up by Lemoine’s oyster farmer friend Joel Dupuch and rowed out to the low tide mark, where it was chained inside a concrete chamber that kept it protected while letting the water flow in and out.
“The barrel could roll around a little,” as it would if it were lying on the sea bed, Dupuch told the wine lovers and journalists gathered in Paris.
“It was very exposed to the wind and the weather, and it was just opposite the window of my house, so I could keep an eye on it!”
During the very lowest tides it was briefly exposed to the air, around 25 or 30 times over a six-month period.
Both barrels were retrieved in January for the wine to be bottled, tasted and analysed in a laboratory.
“Tellus” turned out to be rather disappointing. But “Neptune” was a good surprise all round.
“When we tasted it it was much better than it should have been,” the expert taster Bernard Burtschy told the Paris gathering. At once mellower and more complex than its on-land relative, he said.
Read more Here.…..but don’t forget to….
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Forgotten French Wine Grape
Forgotten French Wine Grape. Ok – maybe “forgotten” is a little stong. “Neglected”, “Little known Internationally” might be better descriptions for the Gamay Grape. Although a flavorful and fruity little devil(and isn’t that the best kind?) the Gamay’s place in the French Wine Pantheon is usually overshadowed by it’s more celebrated cousins. The Cabernets, the Sauvignons and the Merlots.
To wine lovers in gerneral and residents of the Loire in particular however, the Gamay is not a stranger. As the Touraine appelation – much prized – is 100% Gamay. (And a favorite on the Bicycle Gourmet’s table!)
Otherwise, Gamay’s fame – especially to non-French consumers is usually associated with Beaujolais Wine.
Wine Sleuth’s Steve Gross sings it praises :
“Just to the north of Burgundy, you’ll find the birthplace of one of the easiest drinking red wines.
Flowery labels on inexpensive bottles entice many new wine drinkers to try the wines of Beaujolais. Relatively simple, fresh, and juicy (an odd term for grape juice, but it fits in this case), Beaujolais is a great summer picnic wine, a apt compliment to warmer temperatures and fresh air.
Each year, in November, comes the release of Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais Nouveau is the bottling of that year’s vintage, and it certainly tastes new.
If you haven’t noticed, many wines are not released until several years after they’ve been put into barrels.
Sometimes this is the result of laws regarding the naming of the wine (for example, the Italian reds Chianti Classico and Chianti Riserva).
Often, however, wines are allowed to gain age at the winery before release. This allows for a merging of elements within the wine, and the time is worth it in most cases.
Beaujolais, however, is usually drunk early in its lifetime, within two or three years of release.
Beaujolais is made from the Gamay grape
The grape in Beaujolais is Gamay, which makes for very juicy, fresh-tasting, relatively uncomplicated wine, even after a few years of age.
Due to the pricing of most of the available wines (seldom more than $20, though there are exceptions), Beaujolais is a great wine to try, and to help white wine drinkers move into the world of red wine.
You won’t have to untangle layers of oak-induced spiciness, chocolate, or smoke here.
Georges Duboeuf is perhaps the best-known producer of Beaujolais (This is the flowery label reference from the opening of this post), with wines from several of the villages within the region: Morgon, Fleurie, Julienas, and Brouilly are several of them. Cru Beaujolais, the highest designation, uses the name of the village, not just calling themselves Beaujolais.
These wines can offer more complexity and a bit of a sense of place, though the name comes from the entire village, not the name of a single vineyard as is the case in Burgundy.
Today’s wine drinkers have been lucky to have several outstanding vintages of Beaujolais in recent years. The 2009 and 2010 wines have been considered very strong demonstrations of what Beaujolais is all about, and we are lucky to have these wines on our store shelves right now.”
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French Country Travel Life Food and Wine
French Country Travel Life Food and Wine – obviously two of the best reasons for travelling through The French Countryside. N’est ce pas? Not the only ones of course. But if you do, or have done, you’ll discover that French Food and Wine, particularly in a country setting, are just the “icing on the cake.” The cake being the people. And their relations to one another.
You’ll find, as I did, that the everyday routine, as well as the special ocassions and “fetes” are all imbued with the same degree of appreciation and reverence for the land. And their good fortune to be on it. And part of it.
This is the expression of their word “terrior.” (pro – “tear-war”) One that’s most often used to describe the fidelity of grapevines to a particularly location. But in the same and wider sense, it also expresses their fidelity to, and pride in the place where they live.
Not chest-thumping Nationalism of the we’re-the-best-and-you’re-dogmeat variety, but a ..shall we say…”contented regionalism.”
Care for a “petite degustation” of French Country Travel Life Food and Wine?
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